Pick A Card
by kisikil
Summary: Himiko approaches Shuichi with a new hobby she's trying out. Originally posted on AO3. Contains NO NDRV3 spoilers. University AU.


"Saihara."

Shuichi peered from the book he was indulging in to find Himiko standing over him, staring at him with her sluggish, tired eyes that reminded him of a sloth. It wasn't often when Himiko approached him outside of their study group, much less approach him in the university library as he was usually the only one to actually use it for its purpose. She was motionless, a statue that was going to stare him down in his seat until he replied to her.

"Yumeno? What do you need?" Shuichi asked, the girl's gaze making him shift in his seat. He closed his book and set it on the table. "Did you need help with homework? Or...something?"

Himiko blinked a few times before seating herself across from the boy. She dug into her pockets and pulled out a deck of cards.

"Pick a card," she said.

"...Eh?"

"Pick a card," she repeated as monotonously as ever, shoving the deck of cards towards his direction. Shuichi didn't know how to accurately respond to that. He hesitated for a moment before sliding a single card off the top of the deck. The three of hearts. "Put it back," she commanded, and he obliged, awkwardly slipping the card back on the top of the deck. He shook his foot in place, unsure of how this conversation was going or where it was going to lead.

Himiko furrowed her brows and started shuffling her deck. She was clumsy with it - cards kept slipping out of her hands and some were turned over where Shuichi and her could see them. She lifted the deck to eye-level and observed it intently, flipping through each card individually until she settled on one, removing it from the middle of the deck. She placed it face-down on the table.

"Are you ready?" she asked.

"Um...sure?" Shuichi responded, uncertainty tainting his voice. Himiko flipped over the card.

The seven of spades.

"Is this your card?" Himiko questioned, an eyebrow raised but her lip still pouted in her usual nonchalant manner.

"...No," Shuichi answered. There was a long silence between the two until Himiko swiped the card from the table and flipped through her deck again. This time, her movements were much more rushed and some cards spilled onto the floor. That didn't stop her from finding a new card to present before Shuichi - the four of diamonds.

"Is _this_ your card?"

"No."

Himiko bit her lip and dug through her deck again, not even bothering to cover up the glaring mistake she left on the table. She didn't even try to search for something reasonable this time - she pulled out whatever seemed right to her and laid it down on a stack of forgotten, abandoned cards. The king of spades.

"Is...this your card?"

"N-No," Shuichi responded. Himiko was utterly defeated; she didn't bother to try again. She merely set down her mangled deck of cards and laid her head on the table. "Y-Yumeno! Are you...alright?"

"I want to go to sleep forever."

"Don't do that…" Shuichi wasn't sure what to do, so he patted Himiko's head a couple of times. "Why the sudden need to show me card tricks?"

Himiko didn't respond to him at first. After some time of resting her head, though, she lifted herself up and slouched back in her seat. Her eyes seemed more sluggish than Shuichi ever remembered them being.

"I dunno…" Himiko muttered. "I wanted to do somethin'...interesting."

"Interesting?" Shuichi asked.

"Yeah, you know…" Himiko sighed before continuing her thoughts. "Everyone's got somethin' interesting in our group… Akamatsu can play the piano, Angie can make sculptures and stuff, Iruma can invent things… Even that Ouma can make okay jokes sometimes. I don't really have anything like that…"

"I-I think you make great jokes, Yumeno!" Shuichi stuttered. Himiko just eyed Shuichi, and he put his head down.

"That's not what I mean," Himiko clarified. "I mean like… I don't have anything interesting to offer."

"I don't really have anything interesting either…" Shuichi figured if he couldn't compliment her out of feeling this way, maybe he could drag himself down so they could relate. That didn't help too much, though.

"You always have a new book to talk about and stuff," Himiko said. "I don't really have anything…"

Shuichi remembered their study group. Usually, Himiko would sit off to the side by herself, some days with Angie and Tenko. She didn't speak much, though - she usually had her head propped up on her hand, her cheek squished as her eyes languidly blinked amongst everyone's chatter. Her eyes would move between each person as they talked. No one really studied nor lived up to the title of "study group" - they would usually talk about work or home. Everyone had their own hobbies and talents they would brag about as well; it wasn't in a way to show-off or anything, but mostly because everyone was interested in everyone else's interests.

Now that Shuichi thought about it… He didn't really know what Himiko liked to do. Himiko never talked about what she liked to do, in fact. He always thought she was bored with these study groups and only came because Tenko urged her to. He never considered the prospect that Himiko simply didn't have anything to say…

He glanced at the cards that were littered across the library table they sat at. Himiko was still slouched in her chair, eyes droopy and arms crossed. Did Himiko want to find something to talk about? To show everyone else?

"Yumeno…" Shuichi said. "Am I the first person you tried this with?"

"...Yeah," Himiko said.

"Why?"

She pouted her lip. "I dunno… I didn't think you would laugh if I messed up."

Shuichi tapped his fingers against the table for bit, contemplating. Then, he pulled out his phone from his bag and started messing with it, going to the browser and…

"Yumeno, gather up your cards."

"Eh?"

"Come on," Shuichi said, setting down his phone with a certain webpage open as he started gathering up the stray cards. Himiko helped, and they eventually brought the deck back together, all the cards facing the same direction this time. "Alright," Shuichi said. "It says here that first-"

"You looked up how to do a card trick?" Himiko asked, interrupting him.

"Well, yeah," Shuichi responded. "You wanted to learn how to do this, right?"

Himiko gawked at him, blinking in disbelief a few times. Then, her usual childish pout turned into a smirk.

Shuichi found a step-by-step guide on how to do the most basic of card tricks. It turns out that basic was far from what it was - Shuichi and Himiko had to reread the instructions several times in order to really understand what the guide was telling them. Himiko tried to stealthy slip the card Shuichi would choose under her sleeve, but the card bulging through the cloth was incredibly obvious, and the process of getting the card up her sleeve while keeping the card in her hands only led to the cards scattering across the carpeted floor. Shuichi suggested having two of the same card in the deck so it would be easier to find her spectator's card… But, they realized that relied on having the spectator pick the exact card they needed, which was a 2/53 chance at that point. They tried to re-read the guide again and decipher exactly what it meant, and, after some blood, sweat, and tears, Himiko managed to pull Shuichi's card.

"The five of spades!" Shuichi shouted, causing the librarian to scold them from afar. Shuichi mumbled in an excited tone afterwards, "You did it, Yumeno!"

"I...I did!" Himiko said, a huge grin plastered on her face. "It's your card! We got it!"

"Who knew you just had to keep the card on the bottom of the deck?" Shuichi said, and they high-fived each other. Himiko held the magic card before her, her eyes wider than Shuichi had ever seen and a smile so big it stretched across her face. Pride seemed to beam from her, pride that she was able to finally succeed at a card trick.

"Thank you, Saihara," Himiko said. "Now I… Now I know how to do a card trick!"

"I'm proud of you, Yumeno!" Shuichi cheered, patting Himiko on the head. "Are you going to show this off to everyone at the study group?"

Himiko's smile seemed to fade away when Shuichi mentioned that. "I dunno…" Himiko muttered, her voice back to its low and monotonous self. "What if I mess up?"

"I'm sure they'll understand if you did," Shuichi assured her. "I mean, you're new at this."

Himiko squinted at the card in her hand, pouting her lip. "I dunno…" she said.

"Why don't we practice some more, then?" Shuichi asked. "If you can do it five times in a row, then you can for sure try this with our friends!"

Himiko eyed the card for a few moments longer before her smile returned. "Alright," she responded, nodding and shuffling her deck for another round of magic tricks.


End file.
